Shelter, 'a solution.'

The want to help we think is inherent. A profound sense of helplessness that drives us to wonder whether we could be valuable as part of the solution or whether this should be left up to someone else?

Our society has ‘evolved’ to become utterly urbanised. We are leaving behind some by choice and others less fortunate. An urgent responsibility of us all, and without meaningful collaboration, a sustainable solution is not achievable. Here at PDT we have been inspired and driven by numerous remarkable innovations, globally on projects that provide affordable living and emergency shelter for the immensely increasing number of humans in need.

Alejandro Aravena, Shigeru Ban and Alastair Parvin are just a few of the renowned Architects to explore and develop ideas in providing shelter and affordable housing. They are using various material palettes, understanding social influences, and harnessing the latest technologies to examine modular opportunities.

Our Architecture team have been undertaking inhouse charettes and workshops in weekly meetings, to explore and understand the issues of homelessness locally, internationally, and the desperate need for emergency shelters.

Our ‘a solution’ initiative is to combine our creativity and experience to come up with our version of a relevant ‘game-changing’ scheme/s that can be tested against the current models. As part of this initiative we will firstly discover what has been found through precedent studies and understand the immediate needs of who we are aiming shelter for, from both a physical and social standpoint.

We will explore ideas of local materials, readily available that can be re-purposed/re-cycled to harness a lightweight baseline with qualities that are rigid and can act as membranes (waterproof) to shelter from the elements. We will investigate commercial waste opportunities, such as construction waste and the potential to tackle the topical question around the abundance of plastic in our re-cycled refuse stations with nowhere to go? … Could we help to address an already critical issue, in the pursuit of another?

Each city faces its own specific set of hurdles from environmental conditions through to social and political constraints. The further we dig into the complexities of this problem, the more we understand.

While there is no universal ‘silver bullet’ solution, we are determined to maintain our enthusiasm in understanding and developing our version of ‘a solution’ that is sustainable.

We look forward to speaking further with those in power to test their appetite and if nothing else, drive further awareness and generate conversation.

Stay tuned for further updates.

PDT Architects29th Sep 2019

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